Part Two: Section 2
XM Weather
Textual METAR/TAF Code
The current airport weather reports on the Textual
METAR page (and the airport weather forecasts on the
TAF page, too) use a rather cryptic format originally
devised for teleprinters. You can find information
about this format in an FAA publication, Aviation
Weather Formats: METAR/TAF, which can be down-
loaded from the FAA Web site.
You may see the following codes, which differ
slightly from the codes described in the FAA publica-
tion referenced above, at the start of a METAR on the
Textual METAR page:
• SA = METAR — a standard hourly METAR
report.
• SP = SPECI — a Special Report inserted
between regular hourly METARs to provide
late-breaking weather news.
TAF Page
When a GDL 69/69A is installed, the TAF (Termi-
nal Aerodrome Forecast) page is inserted into the WPT
page group, immediately after the Textual METAR
page.
This page shows a text message giving a weather
forecast for a particular airport. The format is similar
to that used for METARS, but describes a weather
forecast rather than current weather at the particular
airport.
18
TFR Information
Areas with TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions)
are shown outlined in yellow on the NAV main page
of the 500W-series and on the Map and XM Weather
page of both the 400W and 500W-series. More
information about Temporary Flight Restrictions can
be seen on the TFR Information page, which can be
accessed from the Map page or the XM Weather page.
1a. With the Map page (the second page of the
NAV page group) displayed, press the small
right knob to bring up the map pointer.
or
1b. With the XM Weather page (the third page
of the NAV page group) displayed, press the
MENU key to bring up the Page Menu. Then,
turn the large right knob to highlight "Show
Map Pointer" and press ENT to bring up the
map pointer.
Turn the large and small right knobs to move
2.
the map pointer to the yellow boundary of a
TFR region. When the map pointer is within
the TFR region, its boundary will be highlighted
with a wider yellow line.
190-00356-30 Rev C